Travelling Time

16th July, 2010 on Life, Travel 2 Comments

Tonight The Boy and I are off to Sydney for the weekend, on the first of several interstate trips I’ll be making over the next few months for various reasons. The reason for this trip is the Good Food and Wine Show and Wicked, which I’ll post about when I return!

The cute camera bag that I bought from Jo Totes arrived in time for this trip – I’ll post a review on it after this weekend, but I can say this: it holds a lot of stuff.

Also posted on Pikku

Here’s what’s in there for the bus ride:

long strap for the bag
sunglasses
shopping bag
notebook
pen
paperback
tissues
keys
a smaller bag (for when I need something less massive)
Canon G10 (for when I can’t be bothered taking around the DSLR)
lip balm
coin purse
purse
Canon 400D with attached wide angle lens
50mm 1.8 lens
spare battery and memory card
camera remote
random bits and pieces that didn’t fit into the backpack with the rest of my clothes and things
iphone (not pictured, as I needed something to take the photo with)

With all this stuff in it, the bag is not full – I could probably even get a light jacket in there if I wanted to. Liking the bag so far!

Illustration Friday: Diary

15th July, 2010 on Art & Design No Comments

I had some fun ideas for last week’s topic of giant but didn’t seem to have the time to get them onto paper. I’ve learned from past experience that if I keep putting off topics until I can complete one that I’ve missed I just end up stopping Illustration Friday sketches altogether, which is not what I want! This week is equally, if not more busy, but in the interests of getting something up here we have a blogging octopus, for this week’s theme of diary.

Dear Blogoverse, saw cute girl in school uniform today...

Blogging and ‘microblogging’ sites such as Twitter are like my diary, even if it is in a different and more public sense of the word.

I wonder what an octopus would blog about? Soccer tips and schoolgirls presumably. For once the texture wasn’t put on by me digitally – this was quickly scribbled on the back of a page off my to-do list pad.

ChiGarden at upcoming events

13th July, 2010 on Art & Design, Crafts 2 Comments

Exciting plans are afoot! I will be selling my handmade clay charms, mini sculptures, plushies, button badges and other cool trinkets at a few upcoming events:

At SMASH in Sydney I’ll have a small table with the incredibly talented and fellow creative everythinger Sam. Check out our stuff on Saturday 7th August at Sydney Town Hall!

At Manifest in Melbourne I’ll be sharing a table with Sam and fabulous Perth artist Risachantag – these guys are crazy talented, so even if my stuff isn’t your cup of tea please come take a look at their artwork and you’ll definitely be blown away. We’ll be there on Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd August at the Melbourne Showgrounds, so come say hello!

Yet to be confirmed, but I’ve put in an application to sell solo at the Canberra Handmade Market in December 2010, so I’m going to be busily making things like crazy for the next few months.

I’ll be making a lot of the stuff I’ve made previously with a few new bits a pieces – here’s a few things I’ve made before to get you excited:

Bunny Army

Earrings

Cake!

I’ll be posting up some pics of my progress in making things to sell, as well as the costume(s) that I’ll (hopefully!) finish in time for these conventions. Stay tuned!

A Year Older (with cake!)

12th July, 2010 on Food, Photography 4 Comments

So last week I turned a year older (or a day older really, if you think about it). I was lucky enough to have some friends do a surprise party, be taken out to dinner by The Boy, receive many messages of love and birthday wishes through various media and a whole lot of cake.

I’d write something about being wiser or what I’ve learned in the past year, but I’d rather focus on cake. The Boy decided to make me a massive chocolate monstrosity for my birthday, and after a few false starts in which the cakes didn’t rise we ended up with this:

Not sure whether to call it "Chocolate Monstrosity", "Diet Killer" or simply "The Cake"

I didn’t ask exactly how much chocolate, sugar and butter went into this cake, but I do know that it involves two layers of dense chocolate cake, a layer of milk chocolate ganache in between, covered in dark chocolate ganache and topped with strawberries and white chocolate. I took what I thought was a fairly conservative slice and wasn’t about to finish it – not because it wasn’t incredibly delicious, but because I thought I was going to have a heart attack and spontaneously go up a dress size. I’ve decided for The Boy’s birthday I’m going to make something tangy and light without a hint of chocolate.

I’ll leave you with some photos of the making of The Cake:

The Cake

Model Request

7th July, 2010 on Photography No Comments

Photography is something I’ve always been interested but haven’t pursued much until now, aside from typical touristy shots when travelling and photos of food. One aspect of photography I’d really like to improve on is being able to work with and shoot beautiful photos of people. To this end I’ve gotten myself a tutorial photography session with the fabulous Allyeska, where I’ll hopefully learn how to direct a model and keep them at ease, as well as the technical aspects of photography that I’m still relatively new to.

In particular, I’m really interested in shooting cosplay, lolita fashion, interesting fashion/subcultures, fun costumes, vintage fashion and martial arts. If anyone is into those things and would be up for a photo shoot with me and Allyeska in Canberra, please get in touch!

model: Jamie in Japan (my photography needs work, but isn't she pretty?)